Many of the quest hubs in WildStar are devoted to a single race or faction, offering us the opportunity to get to know those people more as we progress through the game. Probably one of my favorite types of hubs is any that features the clone-tastic Protostar corporation.

Protostar is the ethics-free, mercenary business outfit that’s there to make a profit at any cost without much of a thought to whether such actions are right or not. They stab each other in the back and offer up hilarious commentary on the nature of space bureaucracy. It kind of reminds me of Mom’s corporation from Futurama, the world in the movie Brazil, and SpaceQuest’s various corporate entities (such as ScumSoft). Having a faction that’s blindly capitalistic is a refreshing change of pace from high-minded ideals and goals.

Thus I was pretty psyched to encounter another big Protostar hub in the middle of Malgrave. Psyched… and a little disturbed that there was a sentient Mechari head sitting on a table and being used as some sort of oracle attraction. There’s nothing Protostar wouldn’t stoop to for a buck.

I was instructed to take a safety test to see what I’d be qualified for, and I deliberately tried to fail it. No, I don’t know my favorite color. No, I can’t recognize the color red. But Protostar wants to use everyone, so I guess it really didn’t matter past my own amusement.

I will say that one of the reasons that I’m progressing so slowly through Malgrave is that I will one day be loathe to leave this zone. It’s not the prettiest in the game, but it is so comfy to be in. It continues to feel like the better parts of the American southwest, including canyons cut with clear flowing streams. I am always willing to give a game a pat on the back when its higher-level zones aren’t oppressive-looking death traps.

I’m also not in a rush because I really don’t have an idea what I’ll be doing when I finish up the remaining zones. Contracts and dailies seem like obvious candidates, and perhaps veteran adventures or dungeons. I haven’t really gotten into the WildStar dungeon scene past a few forays, and I’m worried that I’ll be too undergeared and inexperienced to do so at 50. Maybe I’m thinking that if I drag my feet enough, Carbine will add more zones and solo content to the top so that when I get there, I’ll have even more to do.